Bent handlebars!!!

[Enso]

Hi all, looking for some advice if you can help....and contain your giggles!

Fell over on the kitchen floor in road shoes and landed on my bike bending the drop on the right side of the handlebars inward by about an inch... I've gone ahead and bent it back to very nearly it's original position so that you wouldn't really know to look at it....

Question is should I be concerned about the integrity of the bar after a drop from standing height and a bend back or just crack on and forget about it?

The bike is a Giant defy advanced 2 and I believe the bars are aluminium but I'm open to correction....

[Vorpal]

If they are aluminium, I would replace them. Bending them, and bending them back again will have introduced stresses that will eventually be a failure point. Cold bending aluminium tends to introduce micro cracks, anyway, so there is a good chance that there are cracks that you can't see.

Don't risk your steering for a £30 or £40 part.

If they are steel, it's probably okay, but I would disassemble them & check the joint around the clamp. Even if the bending occurred on the drop part, the clamp area is a stress riser, and the area could be damaged from the fall, and you haven't noticed.

[NUKe]

vorpal said it, it really not funny when bars strees fracture latter on. just replace them

[Spinners]

That must have hurt?

If they're aluminium then, personally, I'd continue to ride them but I would definitely take a peek under the bar tape for signs of a crease or stress.

[Enso]

Thanks for the thoughts.....

The bike is pretty new so in an ideal world if I swap the bars out I'd like to replace like for like, a quick search shows the contact sl d-fuse bars will cost me about £65..... Any other suggestions for suitable replacements?

[gxaustin]

The bike is pretty new so in an ideal world if I swap the bars out I'd like to replace like for like, a quick search shows the contact sl d-fuse bars will cost me about £65..... Any other suggestions for suitable replacements?

I doubt your bars are special. Any bars should do as long as they have the width, drop and reach you want. Deda, FSA Omega are about £30. Ritchey - the list is endless.

[Brucey]

aluminium handlebars are made in several distinct ways. The two most common (on modern road bike drops) are

a) cold formed (with the material in the softened condition) and then heat treated for strength
b) just cold formed

There are good bars of each sort and price is no indication of manufacturing method.

If the former sort the bars are very likely to be damaged by being bent and straightened, and may subsequently break with little or no warning (eg under the bar tape). If the latter sort, a modest bend and straighten will usually be tolerated, but even then you can't be 100% sure.

Thus if you are in any doubt you should change them.

cheers

[9494arnold]

I'd replace them.
It's no fun if they break during a ride. (It has happened to me fortunately at very low speed)
I also saw a mate drop his bike unloading it from his car, half way through the ride his Carbon Bars let go. Again fortunately he wasn't going quickly.
Imagine going downhill under braking and they let go. You might not live to tell the tale.
And I doubt if anyone who wears cleats is giggling. It's like being on sheet ice in the wrong underfoot conditions.

[lescargo]

As almost all above advise, change them.
Have pair used "ONE23" bars 42cm.w x 31.8 diam.
You can have these for postage cost.
If you want them pm. me your phone number.
At 77 I don't think I will be building any more bikes up!!

[gregoryoftours]

An inch bend and back is a fair amount I'd say. How it happened is fairly irrelevant. The cost of replacing the bar will be less than that of getting new teeth. I certainly wouldn't take the risk.

[Enso]

Thanks all for the advice/comments... All sorted now! Lescargo, thanks very much for your kind offer but I'd sorted new ones before checking back here, my loss!